Weaning (Other Keyword)
1-7 (7 Records)
Reconstructing paleo-diets from bone-collagen isotope values (carbon and nitrogen) requires proper knowledge of diet-collagen isotopic fractionations (∆d13Cdiet-col, ∆d15Ndiet-col). While these isotopic fractionations vary considerably among previous human paleo-diet reconstructions, some more recent studies have successfully employed "non-static" dietary offsets. New research suggests that non-static diet-collagen isotope fractionations is best when attempting to reconstruct paleo-diets of...
Bayesian probability weaning age estimates of sub-adults from Canimar Abajo, Cuba (2015)
Bone collagen from thirty-two sub-adults (between 0 and 5 years old) and eighteen adult females, excavated from two cemeteries at Canimar Abajo, Cuba (occupied between 1130±110 BCE and 580±120 CE) were analyzed for carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions and then used in two open source Bayesian probability mixing models (Stable Isotope analysis in R, SIAR; Weaning Age Reconstruction with Nitrogen isotopes, WARN) to estimate weaning ages. The weaning age estimates are complimentary between the...
Children of the Atacama Desert: The complex interactions between breastfeeding, weaning and environmental stress in one of the world’s harshest environments. (2017)
Infant feeding practices and the weaning process have important implications for early life health and mortality patterns. In particular, the concept of weaning stress is often invoked as an explanation for increased infant or child mortality and morbidity. In this paper we evaluate the concept of weaning stress and the bioarchaeological methods used to interpret its presence. We highlight the intimate connection between stress and the weaning process in our own research in the northern Atacama...
Nitrogen Stable Isotopes and Infant Feeding Practices: Taking a Long View (2017)
Over the past 20 years, nitrogen stable isotope ratios have been used to explore infant feeding practices in ancient populations. In spite of many productive studies, uncertainties remain about how to interpret juvenile isotope ratios in regard to comparing feeding behavior across different populations, and the relationships of infant feeding practices to health, subsistence modes, environment, and social organization. Infant feeding practices are likely to be constrained by the biological...
Social and Cultural Influences on Weaning Practices (2017)
Much of the research done on weaning practices among ancient societies is directed toward biological aspects of the weaning process. Some researchers have, for example, attempted to identify a ‘natural’ weaning age determined by human primate origins. Surveys of weaning age among modern and ethnohistoric populations, however, demonstrate that weaning age is highly variable across diverse economies and categories of social organization. This pattern (or lack of pattern) suggests that a range of...
Sources of Variations in Breastfeeding and Weaning Practices among Caribbean Populations (2017)
Breastfeeding in humans is a biocultural process shaped by complex interactions of beliefs about health and nutrition, construction of childhood and parental identities, religious values, and lifestyle. While some studies have stated that the type of subsistence does not determine weaning ages in a population, these factors could have affected weaning food choices. This paper analyzes carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in bone collagen of four pre-colonial Caribbean populations: Paso del Indio...
Stable Isotope Analysis of Dental Serial Sections Suggests Delayed Weaning among Archaic Foragers of the Andean Altiplano (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous research identifies delayed weaning as a behavioral adaptation to life at high altitude in the Andean and Tibetan highlands. This research examines the stable isotope chemistry of dental serial sections in Archaic period forager populations of the high Andes in the Lake Titicaca Basin to estimate weaning ages and the potential onset of delayed...